


the inattention of the attentive

by Bekka911



Series: purple syrup and stars that shine [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ADHD, Angst, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Lance doesn't know he has ADHD, Shiro (Voltron) is a Good Parent, Shiro is a Good Space Dad, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), rough
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 16:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21871243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bekka911/pseuds/Bekka911
Summary: asking him how he thinks is like asking ‘how long is a piece of string’ because it doesn’t work, and it’s a stupid question and hecan’t answer it. it’s not because he’s stupid, and it’s not because he’s careless - it’s just that sometimes things scream at him and he has to stop to scream back because otherwise he can’t function, because his thoughts aren’t linear.his thoughts are like his heartbeat, because sometimes they go too quick and sometimes they don’t go at all.ORShiro wants to understand why Lance does some of the things he does. Maybe the urge comes from his days as an instructor at the Garrison, or maybe it’s because he really is ‘Space Dad Shiro’, but he knows it’s more than inattention.
Relationships: Lance & Shiro (Voltron), Lance & Voltron: Legendary Defender Team
Series: purple syrup and stars that shine [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1573699
Comments: 20
Kudos: 337





	the inattention of the attentive

**Author's Note:**

> very rough and messy  
> i don't like the ending  
> enjoy?

Shiro knows something’s up pretty much straight away.

He isn’t sure what prompts him to look closer at the way Lance behaves - maybe it’s a remnant of his teaching days at the Garrison - but he notices that Lance reacts differently to the others. It’s not a dramatic difference, or a bad difference, but it’s a _difference_. So Shiro makes a note to actively pay attention to the way Lance acts.

Without making it obvious of course, because if there’s one thing Shiro knows about this young cuban teen who looks at Shiro like he hung the stars, it’s that Lance doesn’t like to talk about himself. 

(He likes to _talk_ , of course, but Shiro’s not an idiot. He knows that Lance doesn’t discuss anything of weight because that means bringing attention to himself, and despite popular belief, Lance _really doesn’t like being center of attention_.)

So Shiro watches.

And he _sees_.

The first time he notes something of importance, it’s because Allura has them working through some cognitive puzzles. Lance is loud, like usual, but not in the way that draws attention to what he’s doing. Shiro pays attention anyway, because what Lance is doing is _odd_.

Because while everyone _else_ just works through one puzzle at a time, Lance constantly flits between them. He doesn’t stumble over questions, so Shiro is doubtful it’s because Lance doesn’t understand. Just like he doesn’t think Lance cuts off his sentences simply because he doesn’t want to talk. 

The others don’t seem to notice, and even though Keith gets drawn into a small argument with their blue boy, the red paladin’s fingers don’t hesitate or flick between puzzles. But Lance is constantly shifting between activities, sometimes stopping completely while he begins a new tanget. It isn’t until he looks back down that he stops talking, goes back to the puzzles, and then begins a new topic of conversation.

It’s all very stilted. Shiro isn’t sure how Lance can get anything _done_ with such a fractured type of concentration, but it turns out that Lance is actually one of the first finished. Shiro watches with narrowed eyes as Lance simply pushes the puzzles aside and starts talking about anything and everything until _everyone_ is done. He doesn’t seem to care that nobody listens. He just talks because that’s a thing that Lance does.

“Hey Lance,” Shiro says, faux casually. Lance looks up at him with bright eyes. “I was just wondering, you wanna start us off?”

Lance blinks in confusion. “Start doing what?”

Shiro doesn’t let the pensive look cross his face. Allura had said at the start of the session that once the puzzles were completed, each paladin would rate them in order of difficulty and favouritism. Seems that Lance forgot, or wasn’t paying attention, but Shiro really doesn’t think it was out of malice. Lance just genuinely seems to forget instructions sometimes.

“You know,” Shiro says with a small smile. “Ordering them.”

“Oh yeah!” Lance immediately holds up his tablet with his puzzles. He gets through about three before devolving into a tangent. He swerves between listing favourites and commenting on difficulty but he doesn’t ‘rank’ them as such. Shiro hums thoughtfully.

Gradually, they work through each of their personal reviews. Shiro does his best to pay attention to everybody’s response, but he’s also busy watching Lance. The cuban boy had lost interest pretty quickly, and while it’s rude, Shiro isn’t sure Lance did it because he doesn’t care. 

Lance just...stops paying attention. 

Instead, he fiddles with the puzzles on the tablet, grinning in delight as he taps something that makes them reset. Like before, he flickers between them. Shiro frowns when Lance abandons the tablet completely, seemingly having lost interest completely. 

Pidge is just finishing up her review - she’s the last one - when Lance says brightly, “Is this the last of training for today?”

Pidge scowls, face darkening. Allura looks displeased. Keith scoffs. Lance doesn’t look like he realises he’s done something wrong. 

“Bored already?” Keith asks scathingly. “I don’t know why I expected you to take this seriously.”

Lance’s smile dims, something tumultuous and confused darting through his eyes for a moment before his gaze clears and he looks to Allura pleadingly. “Princess?”

Allura sighs, looking disappointed. Lance doesn’t react much, but he taps his fingers on the table and bops his head to some invisible melody. Shiro takes it all down in a mental note. Maybe he should start physically writing these down. Perhaps he can talk to Coran about it. 

“After lunch, I want you to sit down for another attempt at mind-melding,” she says tiredly. “But that’s all for today.”

Lance whoops and stands up, seemingly forgetting that Pidge hadn’t quite finished. Shiro opens his mouth to call out, but changes his mind when he sees that Lance has started humming to himself. They’ve lost him, and they won’t be able to get him to concentrate until later. 

Keith shakes his head, setting down his tablet on the table. “He’s gotta get himself together. We can’t be Defenders of the Universe if one of us has no regard for anyone outside himself.”

Shiro twists his mouth into a thoughtful grimace. He knows where Keith is coming from, but his instincts still tell him that there’s something _more_ to this. “There’s something we’re missing,” he says slowly. Keith gives him an incredulous look. Shiro shrugs unapologetically. “Just...trust me. This isn’t just Lance being careless. There’s something else.”

Pidge mutters to herself as they disperse, but she doesn’t sound angry so Shiro lets sleeping lions lie and instead retreats to his room to ponder the situation and perhaps write a few observations. 

.

_\- Has trouble sustaining attention during tasks  
\- Easily distracted  
\- Fidgets with hands/fingers  
\- Trouble paying attention to one specific activity for sustained periods of time  
\- Interrupts before the activity is over: doesn’t appear to be done out of malic _

.

They gather in the lounge for the mind-meld activity. Shiro sits by Keith, and they talk while they wait for the others to gather. Pidge and Hunk sit down pretty quickly, and Allura starts handing out the headbands, but there’s one noticeable absence.

Pidge groans. “Can’t that idiot be on time for once in his life?” Hunk murmurs something, but Pidge shakes her head and crosses her arms. 

Keith shifts beside Shiro, looking more and more unimpressed as the minutes drag on. “Seriously,” he grumbles. “This is slightly ridiculous. How’d he get into the Garrison with this sort of indifference to things of importance?”

Before Shiro can gently reprimand the team for their lack of faith in their teammate, Lance bursts through the doors, cheeks flushed with exertion. “Sorry!” He says cheerfully. “I was with Blue. We were having a really good chat. Did you know that-”

“Lance,” Keith says sharply. “Nobody cares. Sit down, you’re already late.”

Lance smiles sheepishly, and plops down in between Hunk and Shiro. He seems to be wound up, and Shiro eyes him with a small amount of concern. Allura hands Lance a headband, her forehead creased as she frowns, but Shiro gives her a warning look and she doesn’t say anything about Lance’s tardiness.

Shiro isn’t sure Lance quite knows why they’re angry at him. His body shakes slightly, not out of fear or anything, but simply because that’s a very Lance thing. His taps his thighs with his fingers, and chews on his lip, and he doesn’t seem to notice _at all_.

Shiro says, “Hey, you up for this?”

Lance beams up at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Shiro raises an eyebrow, because Lance is swaying now. The cuban boy shifts position once again, making a small noise as he shifts his feet. “Lance!” Allura snaps. “Please sit still.”

“Sorry,” Lance murmurs, and immediately the trembling fades away and he slouches. Shiro takes a mental note of that as well. “Look, can we get this thing started?”

“We’re waiting on you, doofus,” Keith says with mild annoyance and Lance snorts, his bad mood washed away in seconds. “Look, just sit down and shut up. I don’t want to be here longer than we have to.”

Lance nods and mimes a saulute, grinning maniacally when Keith growls lowly and pointedly looks away. Shiro nudges the cuban teen gently and gives him a reprimanding look. Lance nods and drops his hands to his lap. His fingers twist around each other though. 

“So, like, what are we doing?”

Hunk winces at Lance’s loud voice, and Allura takes a very exaggerated breath. “I want you all to pick a very specific aspect of being a paladin,” she says, very clearly avoiding looking at Lance. “It can be a feeling, or a memory, or a train of thought. Anything to do with you being a Paladin of Voltron. I want you to isolate it, and focus on it.”

Shiro closes his eyes and rifles through his distorted memories. There isn’t much he can draw on, but he lets himself feel the power of bonding with Black once more. He feels the familiarity flow through his muscles and his veins, and when his eyes open, he’s staring at a projection of the Black Lion.

Allura hums appreciatively. “Good work, Shiro. Focusing on the bond with your Lion is a good place to start. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, excellent work.”

The other three each have projection of their lions, which is an indication that they’ve done the activity successfully. Pidge says, “There’s so much information available through our lions, it’s incredible!”

Hunk says, “I’m tough when I’m with my lion. It makes me stronger, you know? Makes me proud.”

Keith shrugs. “I love to fly.” The others don’t press him to say more.

Shiro turns his attention to Lance, whose face is screwed up in frustration. His screen is flickering with a myriad of images. Some are of people Shiro doesn’t recognise, some are of the beach, some are of Blue, and some are of Lance sitting alone in his room, head in his hands.

“Focus on Blue, Lance,” Shiro says softly. “Just focus on your bond with her.”

Lance grunts, and the screen flickers to an image of Blue flying. Except Lance is floating beside her, and he doesn’t have his suit and he’s falling, and then it’s back to Hunk and the Garrison, and then-

Lance rips the headset off and throws it on the ground in front of him, glaring. “This is _stupid!_ ” He rants, getting to his feet. “How am I supposed to focus on just _one thing?_ There’s so much to choose from, and separating one thing from everything else is _impossible_!”

“Clearly not,” Keith says dryly. “We all managed to do it.”

Lance hisses at him, blue eyes hard and angry. “Whatever, I’m out.”

“Lance,” Shiro tries, but Lance is already storming out, hands clenched at his side. Shiro isn’t slow enough to miss the tears bubbling up in Lance’s eyes. Keith stands up to go after him. Shiro raises a weary hand. “Let him be. He’ll be okay.”

Keith looks to the door and sits back down. Allura steps in with another barked instruction.

.  
 _  
\- Easily frustrated  
\- Difficulty separating thoughts  
\- Difficulty focusing on one single thing: constantly comparing and conceptualising events and experiences  
\- Rapid mood changes: possible difficulty regulating emotions?  
_  
.

The thing that tips Shiro off that it might be an attention disorder is when they’re on a mission, and Lance spins away into space after intercepting a blast meant for Pidge. The action itself isn’t unusual, it’s _Lance_ , but rather Shiro weighs the conversation before and after.

“Lance, that move went against orders,” he says sternly, just to test his theory. He commends his paladin for the protective move, and for caring about his teammate, but he needs to _know_. “You broke ranks! What if I called to form Voltron?”

Lance doesn’t sound scolded when he says, “You gave me instructions not to break ranks?” He sounds genuinely confused. “Like, that was a thing? How did I miss that?”

“Are you being serious right now?” Keith cries. “Fucking hell Lance, what is it going to take before you start paying attention to what the _team_ is saying?”

Shiro doesn’t even have a chance to reprimand his faux brother about his language before Lance is piping up, always easily drawn into an argument. “Of course I pay attention, Kogane!” He chirps, sounding offended and slightly hurt. “If I didn’t pay attention, Pidge could be hurt right now! I don’t listen well, alright? I forget things easily, and I don’t like to listen to lectures. I saw that laser firing for Pidge and I reacted, what else do you want from me?”

And that’s when it dawns on Shiro. 

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD. Of _course_. It makes sense. It explains all the symptoms - why Lance can’t sit still, why he constantly is talking even if nobody is listening, why he gets frustrated so easily, why it seems like he never listens, why he constantly zones out and loses track of time so easily. 

It’s not Lance being ignorant or rude or troublesome. Lance probably doesn’t even know that it’s a thing about him. Shiro feels like kicking himself. And then yelling at the team. Except it isn’t their fault that they didn’t know. Heck, _Shiro_ hadn’t known. Lance definitely hadn’t known.

Alright, whatever. Shrio can deal with his discovery once he’s gotten his team home safely. Which is going to be hard, considering Keith and Lance are still arguing and Lance’s speech is getting more and more garbled. 

“Lance,” Shiro says harshly, cutting off the yelling. “Did you hit your head when you got hit?”

“I don’t know,” Lance says tiredly. “I don’t really remember.”

“Helpful.” Keith mutters.

Shiro lets him be about it and tries to come up with a new plan for this battle. The Galra fleet they’re fighting isn’t even that big. It probably can’t even be considered a ‘fleet’. Technically, Voltron should be more than enough to handle it, but something is wrong with their connection, and they’re stuck in their separate lions.

“Shiro!” Lance shrieks, and Shiro jerks around to the Blue Lion just in time to get hit out of the way as Lance takes the ion blast meant for the Black Lion. Shiro shouts as his lion rolls, and the shouts of the team make his head pound as he straightens himself up. 

Lance’s scream cuts off with a choke, and then his comm cuts and Blue is floating.

Shiro flies back over. “Lance!” He calls, nudging into the Blue Lion gently. “Lance, come in! Are you okay?”

In response, the Blue Lion rumbles and wakes up. It’s not Lance though, Shiro can recognise the difference in flying patterns. “Is he okay?” Hunk asks.

Shiro takes a deep breath. “We’re retreating,” he says firmly. “No arguing. Lance is hurt and we can’t form Voltron. We’ll fight this battle another day.”

They take off back to the castle.

.  
 _  
\- Impulsive to a dangerous level  
\- Limited attention during long periods of talking  
\- Limited memory of long instructions  
\- Quick to anger  
\- Reckless maneuvers: purely reaction based, lack of forethought  
_  
.

“He’ll be alright in a quintant,” Coran says cheerily, turning away from Lance’s prone body. The cryopod hums quietly to itself. “The damage wasn’t too bad. Just a few broken ribs and a severe concussion.”

Shiro eyes the cuban boy. He may not know him very well, but Shiro knows that Lance has a good heart. He’s an honest person, a _good_ person. “Alright listen,” he sys heavily. “I think I’ve figured something out.”

“Is it about why Lance is such an idiot?” Keith drawls, but his eyes betray him - they stay firmly on Lance, filled with worry.

Shiro smiles despite himself. It’s so obvious to anyone with eyes that Keith cares about Lance, even if the red paladin won't admit it to himself. “You’re partly right. What does everybody know about ADHD?”

.

Coran endeavours to make some kind of medication for the boy in blue. Shiro talks it over with the cuban, after Lance has woken up and rested properly. Lance’s puppy-dog expression further solidifies Shiro’s belief that Lance had no idea about his actions.

Of course, Keith apologises.

Allura doesn’t quite get that far, but she stops pushing so much.

Shiro just makes sure his space children are happy.


End file.
